Did Gov. Jan Brewer choose pesos over principles?
Posted on Friday, October 29, 2010 at 12:57 AM
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Back in July Jan Brewer, the state governor, justified the adoption of the shockingly anti-immigrant bill by saying that "law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert either buried or just lying out there that have been beheaded."
But it turns out that it may have been bucks, and not beheadings, that drove the bill. At the very least NPR's report is strongly questioning the governors motives.
Through an organization called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), NPR reports that the private-prison industry helped shape the bill, presumably to increase their own revenue by mandating that the undocumented be incarcerated in large numbers.
That bill eventually became Arizona’s controversial new SB-1070 immigration law.
According to NPR the Corrections Corporation of America sees incarcerating large numbers of undocumented immigrants as its next big market, providing “a significant portion of our revenues,” according to company documents quoted in the article.
So jailing undocumented Mexicans isn't just a patriotic duty, it could also be really profitable, apparently. In fact it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to the private prison companies responsible for housing them.
And we're supposed to believe that consideration wasn't a factor? There are between 350,000 to 450,000 undocumented immigrants in the state, depending on whose figures you believe. Looking at them, some see desperate people trying to make a life for themselves, and other's see a rich opportunity.
Two-thirds of the Arizona immigration bills co-sponsors are either members of the ALEC group or were said to be present at the meeting when the idea for the bill was first introduced, NPR claims. 30 of the 36 co-sponsors received campaign donations from private prisons or private-prison lobbyists in the months after the bill was introduced.
If you follow the money, what is it saying?
When the bill was introduced Governor Brewer became something of a celebrity to the many anti-immigrant groups around the nation.
I wonder what they'll make of her now that NPR appears to be suggesting it may have been pesos and not principles that were really at work?
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seanomelbourne | Nov 03, 2010, 11:16 PM EDT
Well I suppose I should congratulate you on winning the house,but I can see some further heated debates on the horizon. Like Australia you now have a hung parliament.The compromises are coming NO will not work anymore.(Facta non verba). The GOP have had the poison chalice (that bush gave)passed back to them.
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Monsoonman | Nov 03, 2010, 09:11 PM EDT
It's OK Maloney, the Tea party has turned up the heat and the Lad will start to see the light. Amazing that the Republicans even got obamas corrupt Senate seat, do you realize the odds/numbers they had to surmount in order to get that seat? None of the armed forces who were Illinois residents were allowed to vote, the state "forgot" to send them their ballots in time. Yet ballots to Illinois prison inmates were hand carried to the prisoners in order to make sure they got their votes. Anyone thinks this sort of rancid corruption is OK, the sort of corruption that eats right at the core of our republic, must be feeding off of that corruption...etu cahir?. Want to write a little expose on the entrneched utter corruption of the chicago political machine that spawned obama? How about Nevada? Didn't think so. Stick to arts.
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maloney | Nov 03, 2010, 08:33 PM EDT
monsoon.. seano thinks something bad is coming. How could anything go wrong with the monsoon, palin & myself leading the charge. Please educate the boy monsoon, he's lost, has no faith & needs help.
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maloney | Nov 03, 2010, 07:52 PM EDT
seano..yea I checked, my nipples are hard. Same thing that happened to Greene, Grayson, Sestak & about 150 other dems, ya nut, they got beat. The dems couldn't even hold obama's senate seat. You can't win the presidency without Ohio & Fla. They were both clean sweeps for the Repubs. Angle didn't lose, Harry cheated. Rand's the Man! Conga line dancing all night long.
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seanomelbourne | Nov 03, 2010, 06:43 PM EDT
Moonsoonman is it not a Pyrrhic victory?
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seanomelbourne | Nov 03, 2010, 06:42 PM EDT
Maloney is running around naked in a euphoric frenzy. Methinks he's in love with Rand Paul. Would Maloney like to inform us why Angle/Whitman/O'Donnell/McMahon
failed in their endeavors and Harry Reid is returned.
Oh1 I forgot Fiorina. What sayest thou Maloney?
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maloney | Nov 03, 2010, 05:35 PM EDT
Cahir...one state outlawed sharia law, Another passed the right to bare arms and another protected the right to hunt. The county I live in voted a convicted felon can not be sheriff. We still have on the books a husband can beat his wife on the court house steps using a stick no bigger than his thumb.
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maloney | Nov 03, 2010, 05:23 PM EDT
Jan Brewer wins again in AZ and she did it all just for you cahir. Rand Paul said HEY also cahir. obama's old seat falls to a Repub, chaps your shorts, don't it chuckle head.
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Monsoonman | Nov 03, 2010, 12:11 PM EDT
Lad, it could be a rainbow of subjects since cahir is an unabashed socialist/marxist with absolutely NO sense of humor. So just my presence would be an irritant to him. A "technical glitch" that only removes my posts on his blog would not bother him in the least.
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maloney | Nov 02, 2010, 08:32 PM EDT
seano...back to your old self I see. You had me worried for a minute there.
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seanomelbourne | Nov 02, 2010, 06:49 PM EDT
Love to know what you wrote to upset poor Cahir. Can't find an address for Aussie tea party. I suppose
their must be a tea party gene. What would it look like? A witch in a Nazi uniform standing in what looks like a wrestling arena!! maybe
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peterson | Nov 01, 2010, 07:29 PM EDT
Maybe if you all lived in Arizona and could see all the drug smuggling, burglaries, home invasions and gang wars,etc. etc. instead of media reports, you would know the truth. Undocumented means "ILLEGAL"-- now do you get it ???
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seamusmoore | Nov 01, 2010, 06:43 PM EDT
Why is Cahir O Doherty so obsessed with the AZ immigration law? Isn't this the IRISH Central website? You could probably count the undocumented/illegal Irish in AZ on your fingers and toes. The answer is probably because his boss, Niall O'Dowd was led around on a leash by Ted Kennedy with respect to the immigration issue. When the immigration bill stalled in the summer of 2007, ILIR (founded by Niall's brother-in-law, Ciaran Staunton) tried to cut a special visa deal for the Irish but was blocked by Edward (No) Moore Kennedy, the same person who had screwed the Irish back in 1965 by changing the 1924 Immigration Act that established quotas grossly advantageous to the Irish (under it Ireland was considered part of the UK for quota purposes). Niall didn't blame Teddie "No Game" though, he chose to scapegoat Ted's long-time foreign policy analyst, Trina Vargo, who Kennedy set up in the US-Ireland Alliance and got the Irish govt to fund it. Ms Vargo, who is Portugese and Canadien educated (post-grad), was merely doing her master's bidding, just like cahir O Doherty
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Monsoonman | Oct 31, 2010, 06:14 PM EDT
Lad! You might want to check your gene splicing techniques, I believe I saw your name signed on to the Australian Tea Party roll.
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